Fox News speakers forum falls apart after member uproar

A televised event for the candidates vying to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as speaker has fallen apart following outrage by Republican lawmakers who complained the Fox News forum would make a spectacle out of an internal conference decision.

Initially, a candidate forum had been planned for Monday featuring the two announced candidates for speaker, plus Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), the head of the Republican Study Committee who has been exploring a bid.

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But the event, billed as an “exclusive joint interview,” was canceled on Friday, according to a source familiar, following outrage that it would make a “circus” out of the speaker’s race.

First, Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), who announced his run on Wednesday, said he wanted to meet with his conference before attending any such event. Then, the cancellations began rolling in.

Hern opted out of the event, followed by Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), the establishment pick in the race. Jordan, too, has canceled.

Jordan and Scalise are said to have talked to one another and agreed the forum would not be a good idea. Republican lawmakers, particularly centrists, had voiced concerns that it would put GOP divisions on display just days after the unprecedented ouster of their speaker.

Already, the conference is hurtling toward an internal election with no clear front-runner, raising the prospect of a protracted speaker’s race. Demands for a rules change that would prevent a single member from calling a no-confidence vote, as Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) did earlier in the week, has injected further uncertainty into the race.

House Republicans had already planned to hold a candidate forum on Tuesday, with an internal election on Wednesday. The notion of a televised event preceding those deliberations led to public griping by GOP lawmakers.

“I still haven’t made a decision on my candidacy for speaker, but I know one thing for sure. I will not be participating in the televised debate,” Hern said on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter. “We need to make this decision as a conference, not on TV. The Republican conference needs a family discussion.”

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Hern has spoken with close to 200 members, according to one source, but wants to speak with every House Republican before announcing if he will run. Both Scalise, a fundraising powerhouse, and Jordan, a leader of the party’s right flank, have racked up a wave of early endorsements.

Former President Donald Trump endorsed Jordan overnight.